Margaret Ronda

I teach creative writing courses in poetry at Willamette. My pedagogical method stems from the idea that analytical and creative inquiry depends on a productive "being in uncertainties," to borrow Keats's phrase. In a creative writing context, this method stresses an openness to experiment, improvisation, and investigation into language as both a means and an end. When teaching students critical reading skills, I urge them to inhabit a text, to become attuned to its particular modalities, instead of quickly imposing a schema or interpretation onto it. To this end, my pedagogy emphasizes inductive learning, intellectual flexibility, and a willingness to continually revisit and revise previous insights.

Interests

Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century American Literature; Lyric and Experimental Poetry; Poetics, Aesthetics, and Ideology